Good news for the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula is that the next Great
Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is February 17-20, 2017. Join the Northern Neck
Audubon Society in supporting GBBC.
In 2016, Great Backyard Bird Count participants in more than 130 countries
counted 5,689 species of birds on more than 162,000 checklists! Contributing
to this number were E-Bird bird lists submitted from Northumberland, Lancaster,
Westmoreland, Essex, and Middlesex and Essex County.
"Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon
Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count was the first online citizen-science
project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real-time.
Now, more than 160,000 people of all ages and walks of life worldwide join the
four-day count each February to create an annual snapshot of the distribution
and abundance of birds. For at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the
count, February 17-20, 2017, simply tally the numbers and kinds of birds you
see. You can count from any location, anywhere in the world, for as long as you
wish!”
Last year Northumberland County “rocked” the count. Will they be able to hold
off the other counties? Here are the results from the 2016 GBBC.
The Great Back Yard Bird Count - Feb 2016
Launched in 1998 the Great Backyard Bird Count was the first online
citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in
near real-time. The Great Backyard Bird Count is led by the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology and National Audubon Society, with Bird Studies Canada and many
international partners. The Great Backyard Bird Count is powered by e-Bird.
More than 100,000 people of all ages and walks of life from over 140 countries
worldwide joined the four-day count this month to create an annual snapshot of
the distribution and abundance of birds. The level of participation in terms
of the number people and countries shattered previous records.
GBBC is a major contribution to science and a very successful endeavor for
Citizen Science.
Though the final date for GBBC entries is 1 Mar the preliminary data as of
8:00AM 25 Feb reflects:
Checklists Submitted: 158,644 Total Species Observed: 5,589 Total
Individual Birds Counted: 18,180,049
Northern Neck participation in the Feb 2016 “Great Back Yard Bird Count"
Northumberland County “flew, hopped, swam, and migrated” past its sister NNK
counties to the South and west by having the highest number of participants,
checklists submitted, and species reported.
Northumberland County-
• 16 participants, 58 Species identified, and 43 checklists submitted.
• Multiple check lists submitted: Maryalyce Johnsen (5), Lawrence
Fritsche (4), Roz Messing (4), William Eldred (4), Ivor van Heerden (2), Debbie
Campbell (2), and Brian Rueger (2)
• More than 20 Species counted: Gary Yordy, Maryalyce Johnsen, and Joan
Fletcher
Lancaster County -
• 5 participants, 49 Species identified, and 13 checklists submitted.
• Multiple check lists submitted: Beth Kendrick (4), Kathleen Lowe (3),
and Kathy Bearden (2)
• More than 20 Species counted: Kathy Bearden and Beth Kendrick
Westmoreland County -
• 5 participants, 43 Species identified, and 13 checklists submitted.
• Multiple check lists submitted: Melissa Gross (5) and Nancy Busick (2)
• More than 20 Species counted: Melissa Gross, R Latane, and Sharon
Olson
Richmond County - No participants or species counts posted to the data as of 25
Feb. I hope that this is an anomaly as I know there are birders (and a
bodacious number of birds) in Richmond County.
You can go to the great backyard bird count website to view the data on bird
species from around the world and drill down into the data. The data is
viewable for each county or you can filter the data to a country region or
continent. If you're a fan of the birds of Australia or India the data is
there for this years count! Go to gbbc.birdcount.org
<http://gbbc.birdcount.org/> or type into the browser’s search engine Great
Backyard Bird Count.
Again a big thank you and “well done” to the 31 folks who counted birds on the
Northern Neck for the 2016 GBBC.
Can Northumberland County hold on to the top perch for participants, species,
and checklists again in Feb 2017? Can Westmoreland, Lancaster, and Richmond
fly higher in Feb 2017?
Why count Birds on the Northern Neck?
Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are.
Bird populations are dynamic; they are constantly in flux. No single scientist
or team of scientists could hope to document and understand the complex
distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time. Scientists
use information from the Great Backyard Bird Count, along with observations
from other citizen-science projects, such as the Christmas Bird Count, Project
FeederWatch, and individuals and birding groups submitted observations, to
e-Bird to get the “big picture” about what is happening to bird populations.
The longer these data are collected, the more meaningful they become in helping
scientists investigate far-reaching questions, like these:
How will the weather and climate change influence bird populations?
Some birds appear in large numbers on the Northern Neck during some years but
not others. Where are these species from year to year, and what can we learn
from these patterns?
How will the timing of birds’ migrations compare with past years on the
Northern Neck and surrounding waters?
What kinds of differences in bird diversity are apparent in cities and towns
versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?
Anticipate (and hope) that more NNAS members and NNK birders will use e-Bird in
2016 to help scientists - and all of us - understand where the birds are on the
Northern Neck and our surrounding waters.
Jeff
Jeff Wright
NNAS Citizen Science and Conservation Committee
